Sometimes, very occasionally, the Academic and the "Real World" align rather well ( Read more... )

Tristero has a post up on why torture is immoral.

And I'm not sure I have a whole lot to add, except I miss when torture was something third world countries and the medieval world did, not my own country.

From Fresh Air, an interview with the director and the star of Ratatouille.

And yes, as fortuna_juvat said, just wait until they get to "grok".

Via Atrios, from The Carpetbagger Report

“The immediate goal is to make sure there are more people on private insurance plans. I mean, people have access to health care in America. After all, you just go to an emergency room.”

Yeah. ERs are great, aren't they? I mean, they legally -have- to treat you if you're not stable. We'll ignore that a bill ( Read more... )

Bush does know he's more or less alone one this one, right?

It costs $35 billion over 5 years ($7 billion a year or roughly $23 per US citizen per year). It covers more uninsured children for health care. The medical community is behind it, the insurance companies (you know, the ones Universal Care would put out of business) are behind it ( Read more... )

One year ago today was one of the worst moments for the Amish community, and probably the worst for a specific Amish community. I find their rememberance interesting. They're not setting up a memorial. They're not agrondizing about their loss. Yes, they still hurt, but their peaceful acceptance and return to their lives I think is something we ( Read more... )

So Iran's President Ahmadinejad is in New York with a number of other people for a UN meeting. In the time before the meeting, he spoke at Columbia University and wanted to visit the site of the 9/11 attacks to pay his respects (see previous link). The second trip, though, because:
Several groups were outraged. Security became an issue and the ( Read more... )

And yet another reason to leave...

As I recall, the only reason they have a functional parliament at all is because Sadr finally agreed to work with it. He wants assurances that the US troops won't become a permanent fixture in Iraq. The American people want the same thing. The Iraqi people want the same thing. And yet, Bush won't listenI'm still ( Read more... )

Apparently, a teacher and a principal were caught on film having sex in the principal's office. Now, I'm not saying it's not inappropriate. I'm not sure I think they should have resigned/been fired over it. (I'm assuming any windows were closed and there were no students present.) I mean, how many other office environments do co-workers, even ( Read more... )

It could be very useful in dealing with nuclear waste. And since that's the only major issue with nuclear power...

The real question is would fission produce enough energy to power the units needed to increase decay rates and still net energy? If not, then there's the problem of no net energy production.

In a side note, my ayradyss is off on a business ( Read more... )